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When he was offered the role of chairman of BT’s network arm, Openreach, Mike McTighe was unsure. After 30 years in senior technology and telecoms jobs he was winding down and his wife Terry Vega was recovering from cancer treatment.

“It wasn’t an easy decision to take in the end because as a couple we were going in a different direction,” he recalls.

In his early sixties, retirement in Florida beckoned for McTighe.

Yet the pull of Openreach proved greater than sunshine and daiquiris. As a member of the Ofcom board for eight years, he had witnessed frustration mount over Openreach’s record on broadband service and investment under BT.